page_title: Nanban trade
section_title: Catholicism in Japan
hierarchical_section_title: Nanban trade / Technological and cultural exchanges / Catholicism in Japan
caption_attribution_description: Takafumi Kawakami, http://www.shunkoin.com
context_page_description: The Nanban trade or Nanban trade period, was a period in the history of Japan from the arrival of Europeans in 1543 to the first Sakoku Seclusion Edicts of isolationism in 1614.
  The Nanban trade began with Portuguese explorers, missionaries, and merchants in the Sengoku period and established long-distance overseas trade routes with Japan. The resulting cultural exchange included the introduction of refined sugar, hand-held firearms, galleon-style shipbuilding, and Christianity to Japan. The Nanban trade declined in the early Edo period with the rise of the Tokugawa Shogunate which feared the influence of Christianity in Japan, particularly the Roman Catholicism of the Portuguese. The Tokugawa issued a series of Sakoku policies that increasingly isolated Japan from the outside world and limited European trade to Dutch traders on the island of Dejima.
  Communities are campaigning for the influential Nanban route's inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
context_section_description: With the arrival of the leading Jesuit Francis Xavier in 1549, Catholicism progressively developed as a major religious force in Japan. Although the tolerance of Western "padres" was initially linked to trade, Catholics could claim around 200,000 converts by the end of the 16th century, mainly located in the southern island of Kyūshū. The Jesuits managed to obtain jurisdiction over the trading city of Nagasaki.
  The first reaction from the kampaku Hideyoshi came in 1587 when he promulgated the interdiction of Christianity and ordered the departure of all "padres". This resolution was not followed upon however (only 3 out of 130 Jesuits left Japan), and the Jesuits were essentially able to pursue their activities. Hideyoshi had written that
  "1. Japan is a country of the Gods, and for the padres to come hither and preach a devilish law, is a reprehensible and devilish thing ... 
  2. For the padres to come to Japan and convert people to their creed, destroying Shinto and Buddhist temples to this end, is a hitherto unseen and unheard-of thing ... to stir the canaille to commit outrages of this sort is something deserving of severe punishment." (From Boxer, The Christian Century in Japan)
  Hideyoshi's reaction to Christianity proved stronger when the Spanish galleon San Felipe was wrecked in Japan in 1597. The incident led to twenty-six Christians (6 Franciscans, 17 of their Japanese neophytes, and 3 Japanese Jesuit lay brothers – included by mistake) being crucified in Nagasaki on February 5, 1597. It seems Hideyoshi's decision was taken following encouragements by the Jesuits to expel the rival order, his being informed by the Spanish that military conquest usually followed Catholic proselytism, and by his own desire to take over the cargo of the ship. Although close to a hundred churches were destroyed, most of the Jesuits remained in Japan.
  The final blow came with Tokugawa Ieyasu's firm interdiction of Christianity in 1614, which led to underground activities by the Jesuits and to their participation in Hideyori's revolt in the Siege of Osaka (1614–15). Repression of Catholicism became virulent after Ieyasu's death in 1616, leading to the torturing and killing of around 2,000 Christians (70 westerners and the rest Japanese) and the apostasy of the remaining 200–300,000. The last major reaction of the Christians in Japan was the Shimabara rebellion in 1637.  Thereafter, Catholicism in Japan was driven underground as the so-called "Hidden Christians".
caption: The Bell of Nanbanji, made in Portugal for Nanbanji Church, established by Jesuits in 1576 and destroyed 1587, Japan
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